Network Rail spent £1.3 million on domestic flights

A Freedom of Information Request submitted by The Sun to Network Rail, Britain’s part-taxpayer-funded rail maintenance body, has revealed that in the past two years the body has spent £1.3 million – on domestic flights.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen taxpayer-funded hypocrisy of this nature – research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance some years ago exposed the Environment Agency for taking internal flights for which they got so much bad publicity that they banned staff from taking them.

But nonetheless, when it comes to Network Rail, the figures will stick in the throat for commuters who have sat through years of delays thanks to ‘over-running engineering works.’

The vast majority of commuters have no choice but to take the train. Perhaps if Network Rail’s bosses took the train more often, rather than hopping across the country on taxpayer-funded flights, they might realise quite how much work they have to do to improve the system.